Why Republican Bloggers Do Not Support Republican Mayor Greg Ballard

Jon Easter, Author of
Indy Democrat Blog

Over at the Indy Democrat blog, Jon Easter pens an interesting piece this morning discussing the dearth of public support for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard on right-leaning blogs.  Indeed that is the case.   It's hard to find any Republican blogger who backs Ballard.  It appears Washington Street Politics was started to fill that void, but even that blog has faded into sporadic support for Ballard.  While speculation initially was that former City spokesman Robert Vane was behind the blog, Vane vehemently denies it and, having witnessed the writing style for months, I now concur that he isn't behind the blog.

The only right-leaning blogger who regularly supports Mayor Ballard is WXNT's radio host, Abdul Hakim-Shabazz.  Rumor has long been that Abdul is directly, or indirectly, on the campaign payroll.  I don't know if that is true, but it does seem curious that Abdul supports Ballard 100% even though he's pursuing policies as bad or worse than his predecessor Bart Peterson who Abdul had no problem criticizing.

What happened?

Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana and I were big supporters of Mayor Ballard when he was elected.   Over time, we gave up on Ballard as he betrayed his 2007 supporters and the conservative values we thought the retired Marine held.   There is nothing Ballard has done that remotely suggests he is a Republican, much less a conservative. 

I have always said the people who work for a candidate fall into two categories: 

• True Believers - those people who are motivated to work for the candidate because they believe strongly in the issues and believe the candidate support those issues.
• Opportunists - those people who are motivated to work for the candidate because they believe that they might receive some financial reward (such as a government contract or a job) for their work for the candidate.

Ballard's 2007 supporters included some Opportunists, but they were almost exclusively True Believers.  Today, the True Believers, disillusioned by a Mayor who for 3 1/2 years has betrayed them and their conservative values, have left the building.   It is only the Opportunists, people who cashed in during Ballard's first term or who hope to cash in during a second, left who support the Mayor.  You talk to the True Believers who worked for Mayor Ballard in 2007 and you'll find they absolutely despise Mayor Ballard.  There is nothing worse than when someone who you thought had your back plunges the knife of betrayal into it.  That has what Mayor Ballard has done again and again and again.

Most bloggers are drawn to the new media because of their strong belief in the issues, i.e. they fall into the True Believer category.  It's only natural that those who believe in conservative values enough to spend hours blogging, express dislike toward a Republican who has consistently betrayed those conservative values. 

Whenever I see a Republican blogging in support of Ballard, it is almost always an Opportunist who is benefiting or standing to benefit from the Ballard administration.  That is exactly why the author of the Washington Street Politics, the blog started to support Ballard, is anonymous.  If people found out the name, they'd know the motivation of the author of the blog is not conservative Republican issues, but opportunism.

Ironically, come November 9, 2011, it will be Republican bloggers blamed for sinking Ballard's re-election.  Instead fingers should be pointed to the Opportunists and Profiteers who put politically-naive Ballard on a course which made his reelection impossible.